1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to manufacturing wooden pens, pencils, key chains, and other commonly used articles in a manner that displays dated annual growth rings, and thus shows the tree's life history.
2. Prior Art
There are numerous examples of prior art of wooden pens, pencils, key chains, and other commonly used articles. However prior art of commonly used wooden articles fails to establish any relationship between the grain of the wood and the year the wood formed. In a given year a tree produces thin-walled cells formed early in the year and thicker-walled cells later in the year, referred to as earlywood and latewood, respectively. Each year a tree grows outward from the center. An abrupt boundary between latewood and earlywood marks the completion of one year of tree growth. Dendrochronology (also known as tree-ring analysis or tree-ring dating) is a technique for scientific dating based on the analysis of tree-ring growth patterns. This technique, originally developed by Andrew E. Douglas in the late 19th century, involves counting and analyzing patterns of annual growth rings to date trees and learn about forest conditions and regional ecology. While working in the field of dendrochronology (e.g., Wager and Baker 2003-Canadian Journal of Forest Research) I encountered many members of the public who had little knowledge of tree-ring analysis techniques, but became very interested in it when it was explained to them. I observed that members of the general public, once exposed to the concept, found tree-ring analysis interesting, meaningful, and understandable.
There are numerous examples of prior art of wooden pens and pencils; however they offer no established relationship between the grain of the wood and the year the wood formed. Examples of this prior art include:                U.S. Design Pat. Des. 391,292 that shows an ornamental design for a ballpoint pen.        “Pens by Terry” http://www.pensbyterry.com/about.html is an example of the many wooden pen manufacturers that have established prior art of hand crafted wooden pens.        
There are also examples of patents for combining pens, pencils, key chains with other inventions or concepts, e.g., FR 704 214 and in GB-2 004 096, for combining a watch and a pen into a single item by including a small watch onto the end of a pen, or at the end of a pen cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,416 established an accessory for attachment of promotional characters to pens and key chains to be used in advertising.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,393, issued to Heikkenen, describes a method of dendrochronology wherein the age of authenticity of timber structures is based on a correlation of the relative growth patterns of the woods used in the timber structure and the wood in samples taken from mature living trees on one or more sites in the general vicinity of timber structure's origin. There are numerous examples of cross sections of tree trunks in museums and in other places of public interest with biological explanations to illustrate the age or different growth phases of a tree.
German DE 36 00 810 A1 patented the process of attaching descriptive inscription labels on cross sections of tree trunks (similar to those observed in museums). The novelty of this invention is the use of inscription labels placed on a cross section piece of the trunk to associate events in the tree's life with historical events. Salient events (e.g., political, cultural, or scientific) of history are assigned to the annual rings of the wood cross section. The tree trunk cross section or a segment of it is then offered as a wall decoration or the like. Because DE 36 00 810 A1 does not cover manufacturing the cross section into a commonly used item (e.g., a pen or pencil), it is very similar to the existing prior art (tree trunks in museums) at the time of patent. The main differences are the use of inscription labels and that it is to be hung on a wall. Furthermore, cross sections of a tree trunk formed as a wall decoration do not have portability and multi-functioning qualities.
Prior art of pens, pencils, key chains, or other commonly used articles that display the tree ring chronology of the source wood could not be found.